Consequences of attacks on shipping in the Red sea

[blag]

2 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

If foreign advice is not to travel then you should be insured.

Some (many?) UK insurers will not cover you if the Foreign Office advises against travel to the country. 

[Grandma Cruising]

7 hours ago, blag said:

Some (many?) UK insurers will not cover you if the Foreign Office advises against travel to the country. 

That’s what I mean. If the Foreign Office advice is not to travel to a country then your insurer will usually cover your costs if you cancel that travel. Conversely if you travel to a country that the Foreign Office has advised not travelling to, then you usually would not be insured.

My comment was referring to being covered by insurance if you cancel a cruise that involves travelling somewhere the Foreign Office has advised against.

[blag]

41 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

That’s what I mean. If the Foreign Office advice is not to travel to a country then your insurer will usually cover your costs if you cancel that travel. Conversely if you travel to a country that the Foreign Office has advised not travelling to, then you usually would not be insured.

My comment was referring to being covered by insurance if you cancel a cruise that involves travelling somewhere the Foreign Office has advised against.

Sorry. I misunderstood! 🤦🤦🤦

[Lynda S]

This is really 'old' information, but it is probably a fairly helpful bit of information as we seem to be in the same circumstances now. 

 

In 2001 we booked a two week cruise from Mombasa through to Athens for March 2003.  Stops included Djibouti, Jordan, Egypt, Israel and then Athens.  I even remember the price - it was $5679.00 USD each for an inside cabin including air fare done by the cruise line.  A really good deal I thought.  We pre-booked an additional 5 day safari from Nairobi to the Massai Mara with the cruise line.  The cruise line was Orient Lines (anyone remember them?  The ship was the Crown Odyssey, the sister ship was the Marco Polo).

 

The first to get chopped, almost right after we booked was Israel; trouble started up there in November 2001.  We were good with that though, said we would go someday in the future instead.  We spent the year planning and researching all ports and was very excited about the whole trip. 

 

In Dec 2002 we got the bigger 'ouch'.   They were cutting out Mombasa  due to the attack on the El Al plane in Nov 2002 from a beach resort there, so this cut out the safari which was my biggest reason for booking this trip.  I cried, but convinced myself that was OK, we would go someday on a safari. (and we sure have many times since then). They would let us know where we were starting from at a later date.

 

Before they even got around to that though, the Iraq War was becoming a reality.  Our agent called us in Jan 2003, right after the New Year.  The whole cruise changed entirely as the insurance company for the ship (at the time it was Lloyds of London I heard) said NO GO to the ship through the Suez.  So our lovely dream safari, and dream vacation of the Middle East became something not even remotely like the original. This happened to most of the cruise lines going through the canal, not just ours.

 

They would fly us to Delhi India for a 5 day land tour of Delhi and Agra, then fly us to Mumbai to catch the ship. We would stop in Goa (India), the Maldives, the Seychelles, Mauritius, Reunion Island, 3 ports in South Africa with 3 nights overnight in Capetown, then Namibia, Cape Verde, Madeira, Tenerife, Lisbon, Cadiz, Barcelona, Nice and then disembark with 2 days in Rome.  And certainly not in 2 weeks - I had to grovel to the boss and get 6 weeks for that little vacation, luckily both the employers of myself & my husband said yes.  The war did start, the war was declared the day we arrived in India.

 

But the best part?  Not one additional penny was owed - they gave us that entire trip for $5679.00 USD each. 

 

It was an awesome adventure! 

[Peter Lanky]

9 hours ago, Lynda S said:

 

 

 . . . It was an awesome adventure! 

I keep chewing over what may happen, and the bottom line is that the ship has to get to the Mediterranean somehow, so if the troubles continue, will almost be compelled to circumvent Africa or lose the entire summer season of Mediterranean cruises. Will they do the same thing as happened to you is another question.

 

I would be quite happy with an extended trip at no additional cost, as long as I can persuade KLM to give me credit for our one way flight from Athens to Manchester. Really I don't want to be in Athens at all, seeing as I have to take 2 flights to get home, so I'm quite happy to miss out on that.

 

I'm not sure if this 'wait and see' approach is the best option, unless of course there are contingency plans being made in the background.

 

 

[uktog]

There are also the economic consequences to work through. Each option hits the bottom line. I would expect the financial decision will be to delay for the sweet spot for Azamara financially whatever that is. 

They’ve also other considerations to factor into the equation including how to re supply and refuel, where are crew visas needed (usually trickier than guests) can they even get them, what are the implications for crew leaving or joining 

Its a big issue that will be being thought through but the answers will take time. 

[Vivasea]

12 hours ago, Lynda S said:

This is really 'old' information, but it is probably a fairly helpful bit of information as we seem to be in the same circumstances now. 

 

In 2001 we booked a two week cruise from Mombasa through to Athens for March 2003.  Stops included Djibouti, Jordan, Egypt, Israel and then Athens.  I even remember the price - it was $5679.00 USD each for an inside cabin including air fare done by the cruise line.  A really good deal I thought.  We pre-booked an additional 5 day safari from Nairobi to the Massai Mara with the cruise line.  The cruise line was Orient Lines (anyone remember them?  The ship was the Crown Odyssey, the sister ship was the Marco Polo).

 

The first to get chopped, almost right after we booked was Israel; trouble started up there in November 2001.  We were good with that though, said we would go someday in the future instead.  We spent the year planning and researching all ports and was very excited about the whole trip. 

 

In Dec 2002 we got the bigger 'ouch'.   They were cutting out Mombasa  due to the attack on the El Al plane in Nov 2002 from a beach resort there, so this cut out the safari which was my biggest reason for booking this trip.  I cried, but convinced myself that was OK, we would go someday on a safari. (and we sure have many times since then). They would let us know where we were starting from at a later date.

 

Before they even got around to that though, the Iraq War was becoming a reality.  Our agent called us in Jan 2003, right after the New Year.  The whole cruise changed entirely as the insurance company for the ship (at the time it was Lloyds of London I heard) said NO GO to the ship through the Suez.  So our lovely dream safari, and dream vacation of the Middle East became something not even remotely like the original. This happened to most of the cruise lines going through the canal, not just ours.

 

They would fly us to Delhi India for a 5 day land tour of Delhi and Agra, then fly us to Mumbai to catch the ship. We would stop in Goa (India), the Maldives, the Seychelles, Mauritius, Reunion Island, 3 ports in South Africa with 3 nights overnight in Capetown, then Namibia, Cape Verde, Madeira, Tenerife, Lisbon, Cadiz, Barcelona, Nice and then disembark with 2 days in Rome.  And certainly not in 2 weeks - I had to grovel to the boss and get 6 weeks for that little vacation, luckily both the employers of myself & my husband said yes.  The war did start, the war was declared the day we arrived in India.

 

But the best part?  Not one additional penny was owed - they gave us that entire trip for $5679.00 USD each. 

 

It was an awesome adventure! 

My DH and I joined Odyssey in Cape Town and sailed to Lisbon on this cruise - and had wonderful time.  We could have stayed on to Barcelona for £300 per person (work was calling).  Happy memories.

[Lynda S]

10 hours ago, Vivasea said:

My DH and I joined Odyssey in Cape Town and sailed to Lisbon on this cruise - and had wonderful time.  We could have stayed on to Barcelona for £300 per person (work was calling).  Happy memories.

Oh wow, that is so cool!  It was indeed a wonderful trip - those 8 days at sea were heaven to me!

[jcruizer]

We were on the Journey through the Suez this last Oct/Nov 23. There was security of course, as we spoke to a couple of them. They did see some activity alongside but nothing to worry about.
The talk with the Captain and top officers was reassuring with sailing at this time. 

A great cruise and we were so glad to get into our bucket list ports.

This was not our first Suez Canal cruise but our first with Azamara. 
 

Let’s hope things improve, for all in this area.

[Milly66]

On 1/8/2024 at 8:56 AM, Peter Lanky said:

I keep chewing over what may happen, and the bottom line is that the ship has to get to the Mediterranean somehow, so if the troubles continue, will almost be compelled to circumvent Africa or lose the entire summer season of Mediterranean cruises. Will they do the same thing as happened to you is another question.

 

I would be quite happy with an extended trip at no additional cost, as long as I can persuade KLM to give me credit for our one way flight from Athens to Manchester. Really I don't want to be in Athens at all, seeing as I have to take 2 flights to get home, so I'm quite happy to miss out on that.

 

I'm not sure if this 'wait and see' approach is the best option, unless of course there are contingency plans being made in the background.

 

 

We are booked on Journey for the Spice Trail Cruise  on May 3rd and have already booked our flights from Athens to Manchester with BA. Not sure if we would get a refund if we had to cancel.  Also as we booked through a travel agent we have to pay the full balance for cruise and flights to Singapore by the end of January. This means we will also have to pay for insurance at the same time to cover us.  Has anyone else had to pay so far in advance?

[uktog]

43 minutes ago, Milly66 said:

We are booked on Journey for the Spice Trail Cruise  on May 3rd and have already booked our flights from Athens to Manchester with BA. Not sure if we would get a refund if we had to cancel.  Also as we booked through a travel agent we have to pay the full balance for cruise and flights to Singapore by the end of January. This means we will also have to pay for insurance at the same time to cover us.  Has anyone else had to pay so far in advance?

Unfortunately if you did not pay for travel insurance on booking you will have more limited cover re cancellation as the event is already happening 

[scotsahoy]

We are also on 3 May cruise, but always renew our annual insurance. Like others, we booked cruise and outward flights via a TA, (UK) but booked our own flights back from Athens to Edinburgh ( 2 flights); I doubt we would get refund for this unless cruise was cancelled. We had to pay balance by 5 January.

Keeping close eye on Silversea thread re Silver Moon which departed Aqaba on 6 January - had several changes last few days and latest is cruise now finishing in Athens.

We are keeping on open mind on what might happen.

 

 

[Milly66]

The other problem is booking trips.  I don't feel confident to do this yet.

[columbus1492]

On 12/27/2023 at 3:25 AM, susiesan said:

Oceania has already rerouted their Red Sea cruises in 2024 to go around the long way via Capetown. 

Source please?

[beatnix]

MSC chanceld the three cruises scheduled to pass the red sea yesterday.

[paf225]

17 hours ago, columbus1492 said:

Source please?

I’m not sure what the poster’s source is but my source is Oceania.  They cancelled Riviera’s Middle East/Red Sea cruises scheduled for November and December 2024 and replaced them with month long cruises from Barcelona to Cape Town and Cape Town to Singapore.  I booked the 32 day CapeTown to Singapore cruise shortly after the new itineraries came out around the beginning of last month.  Regards,  Paul

[columbus1492]

41 minutes ago, paf225 said:

I’m not sure what the poster’s source is but my source is Oceania.  They cancelled Riviera’s Middle East/Red Sea cruises scheduled for November and December 2024 and replaced them with month long cruises from Barcelona to Cape Town and Cape Town to Singapore.  I booked the 32 day CapeTown to Singapore cruise shortly after the new itineraries came out around the beginning of last month.  Regards,  Paul

I'm on the Riviera's April '24 Tokyo to Barcelona cruise and it's not been cancelled to my knowledge - yet.

On 12/27/2023 at 3:25 AM, susiesan said:

Oceania has already rerouted their Red Sea cruises in 2024 to go around the long way via Capetown. 

Source please?

[Peter Lanky]

15 minutes ago, columbus1492 said:

Source please?

https://www.google.com

[Peter Lanky]

The latest I can find on Oceania is that 2 ships are still planning to traverse the Red Sea but with no stops, which means 9 days from Dubai to Athens without a call in port. Though this would afford some protection from trouble on land, I'm not sure how this is supposed to help with potential missile attacks.

 

If things remain as they are, I don't fancy this option myself if Azamara plans something similar, but there is no indication of how Oceania has made arrangements with booked passengers.

[hamrag]

1 hour ago, Peter Lanky said:

The latest I can find on Oceania is that 2 ships are still planning to traverse the Red Sea but with no stops, which means 9 days from Dubai to Athens without a call in port. Though this would afford some protection from trouble on land, I'm not sure how this is supposed to help with potential missile attacks....

Indeed! We actually cancelled an 18 night repositioning cruise to Dubai with MSC Virtuosa in Yacht Club at final payment and took the deposit hit for November past. TBF, it was due to the Russian conflict, and an unease about sailing through the middle east area. Up until the Hamas attack on Israel, and subsequent escalation in that area we thought it somewhat of an over reaction but realise now we made the right call.

 

We ended up in the Caribbean instead, thoroughly enjoyed it and have no regrets. It may well be we never traverse the middle east again, it's utterly horrifying to see the devastation in our world and the innocent lives lost or torn apart.

Edited January 18 by hamrag

[Kayena Kevin]

We (a group of 6) are also booked on this cruise. Petra and Egypt are the main attractions so a direct transit from Dubai to Athens would be unacceptable to us. We would really like Azamara to make an early call on this as connecting flights, pre/post cruise accommodation, visas and excursions need to be organised in the next month. On another matter I have not been able to find out anything about the on board program for sea days. Given the large (and possibly larger) number of sea days a lecture program, bridge lessons, language courses, art programs would all interest us.

[Grandma Cruising]

Here’s the programme from a sea day last year.

[Peter Lanky]

6 hours ago, Kayena Kevin said:

Given the large (and possibly larger) number of sea days a lecture program, bridge lessons, language courses, art programs would all interest us.

We cruised from Gran Canaria to Cape Town with Azamara in Nov/Dec which involved many sea days. We had as many as 7 quiz sessions in the day and there was certainly plenty of Bridge being played as well as morning and afternoon lectures and plenty of music sessions. The only weak links were games like table tennis which were not particularly well organised, but you can't have evrything.

[paf225]

12 hours ago, Kayena Kevin said:

We (a group of 6) are also booked on this cruise. Petra and Egypt are the main attractions so a direct transit from Dubai to Athens would be unacceptable to us. We would really like Azamara to make an early call on this as connecting flights, pre/post cruise accommodation, visas and excursions need to be organised in the next month. On another matter I have not been able to find out anything about the on board program for sea days. Given the large (and possibly larger) number of sea days a lecture program, bridge lessons, language courses, art programs would all interest us.

Here is today’s activity list for Onward.  As you can see there are plenty of options on a sea day.  Regards, Paul

[Kayena Kevin]

Did not find today's communication from Azamara to be very useful. Whilst I can understand their desire to try to stick to the current itinerary, today's attacks make this even more unlikely. Let us be honest, it would be totally irresponsible to choose to take a cruise ship through the Red Sea at the moment. Passengers need to know more than 2 months in advance if the cruise is to be cancelled, rerouted via Africa or abbreviated. We have flights, visas, accommodation etc that will be extremely expensive to reorganise at late notice. Most other cruise lines have made the call.